Waiting
by Chibi-Ra-Chan
Summary: Becasue she is so tired of being empty and he doesn't quite know how to accept help from others. It may not be paradise, but it was still more then either could ever dare to hope for. SuiSaku Dedicated to Memories Faded.


**Waiting**

By Chibi Ra Chan

Pairing; Hozuki Suigetsu and Haruno Sakura

Rating; T for language and minor sexual situations

Inspired Songs; _Megalomania _by Muse_, Forever Again _by Melanie C _and Himeboshi _by Kaijura Yuki

Dedicated to Memories Faded; who is single handily giving me hope for the SuiSaku fandom.

This story takes place sometime after Pein's attack on Konoha; think of it as an alternate universe from that point on though.

_

* * *

Sometimes it feels like I can't breathe. Like everything is moving slowly and it will never end. The storm clouds don't help very much either, but I can't seem to make myself leave this place, even if it means my own personal unhappiness. I feel like I'm just waiting. Waiting for something to happen._

_ Waiting for the rain to clean my soul._

* * *

Paradise, whether it was Konoha's or Pein's, came at too high of a price. Dreams of perfection had gotten them nothing besides more war and death.

If this was paradise then Sakura wanted none of it.

There was no Konoha. There was no Akatsuki. There was nothing but destruction and ruins of once great shinobi nations. The toll on shinobi and civilians both had been high.

With Konoha destroyed other countries leaped to take it's place, that's how all the fighting began. Kumo and Sound fought each other to win the spoils of the war torn Konoha. Causing Suna to pull together with Kusa to defend a mutual ally. The Akatsuki itself was pulled into the fray once a coup de a' tat in Iwa lead to the annexing of Ame.

With two years of war already past, there were no shinobi nations, nor Akatsuki, everything was ruined. The world had become so convoluted that it didn't matter who was on whose side anymore.

There were no sides.

It wasn't all that surprising when Naruto went off to train to defeat Madara, whom they found out only after defeating Pein, was their true enemy, that how he always handled a crisis. He buried himself in training

Sakura on the other hand, went to Suna.

Gaara had offered to take in any survivors of the attack, to welcome them into Suna as their own. Most went, many of her friends included, but of course some stayed, too stubborn to leave the village. They were convinced it could be rebuilt, optimists.

She couldn't agree with them no matter how much her heart her begged to. Too many memories were stolen, too many people lay dead on the grounds, and there was too much pain to ever bare staying.

So she went to Suna and tried, really really tried to start over, to live again. She couldn't do it. She couldn't take the weight that wearing the hourglass on her headband put on her soul. It was too much.

She ran and no one stopped her. She wasn't the first to do so by any means.

She took small jobs to get by. Only enough to feed, house and cloth her. At first Sakura traveled around as much as she possibly could, it wasn't too hard to make money as a medic, there were plenty of dying people in the world after all.

But as the fighting became worse, the carnage too extensive for her to stomach, she took fewer and fewer jobs, and settled into a small house in Ame, far away from any city of town. It was too much to watch the world slowly ripping itself apart, and not fall to pieces with it.

Two years had not been kind to Haruno Sakura.

* * *

She finds him half dead, literally, on her doorstep. How anyone had found her secluded 'home' (she used the term lightly, there was no home besides Konoha and that ship had sailed long ago.) was a mystery to her. She had taken extra care to live away from as many people as she could, and never left without placing a concealment jutsu over it. She couldn't afford to have anyone find her, she didn't want to be found.

He had been so still, so pale that she mistook him for dead at first. Upon closer inspection, she found he was still alive, but barely. His ragged breathing, the blood pooling under him, the ribs that were protruding at odd angles and his lack of response when she prodded him with her foot a few times told volumes about the damage he had surely suffered.

She didn't have to think all that hard to place a name to his bruised face.

Hōzuki Suigetsu.

Sakura was placed in quite a quandary, to save him or not.

There wasn't a doubt in her mind that he hadn't been a saint since she had seen him last. He had probably went about these last twenty four months much the same as he had the rest of his life; causing trouble.

He was her enemy, he had a hand in destroying Konoha, but then again, everyone did. Years ago she would had turned him away without so much as a pang of remorse, but to do that now was so much more difficult to do when his brow was scrunched in pain and he was shaking violently from the harm done to his internal organs.

She could turn him away, leave him to die in the rain, she could. No one would blame her for it anyway.

There was a sharp pain in Sakura's heart; there was no one else to blame her in the first place.

Ultimately, that was what kept her from abandoning the once Kiri-nin. It wasn't her unwavering value in human life, or something equally hopeful and foolish that she would said when she was only 15, fresh out of medical training. No, her reasons for gently dragging him into the warm of her 'home' (that stupid word again!) and spending the rest of the night pouring chakra into his battered form were completely selfish.

Enemy or not, Suigetsu was the only thing that connected her to the past.

He was all she had left of her stolen childhood.

* * *

Suigetsu wakes up naked and completely swathed in thick blankets. Not so concerned about the former, he tries to focus of the later.

Was he dead?

The last thing he remembered was dragging his sorry ass through the rain, barely able to breathe. He was sure he was going to evaporate and then take weeks to put himself back together again. Being able to liquefy maybe useful, but other times it was a bitch.

'Just one more thing to thank Orochimaru for.' he thinks dryly to himself

When he realizes that Kubikiri Hōchō isn't with him he panics. He tries to wriggle his way from the blankets but he is too tired and the cloth is wrapped so tightly that he is barely able to lift his head. Suigetsu growls in frustration.

The sound is pathetic even to him.

A light laugh alerts him to another presence in the room.

"Your sword is against the wall." The words are light and soft, they hold a warm quality that he hasn't been directed toward him since he was a child. He flickers his gaze above him, and for a moment the shadow cast by the small fire burning is so dark he can't make out the holder of the melodic voice.

"Suigetsu, can you hear me?" A small hand is suddenly in his line of vision. Because he is disorientated, he only watches as the hand gently pushes away the bangs that blur his eyesight and stays on his forehead. She, it's obviously a female, tilts her head to the side, a worried expression adorns her face.

He finally catches a good glimpse of his captor (savior?) and is floored by the irony that fate has seen fit to serve him. Of all the people who could have found him, it had to be her. Before Hebi, (Taka, whatever, he had never known what to call their little group because the Uchiha kept changing their damn name all the time.) had scattered Sasuke had sent all of them in search of a small pink haired girl who had green eyes.

The Uchiha had refused to believe that she could have died in the initial attack on Leaf, he wouldn't listen to reason at all and worked his team to the bone searching for any kind of lead to the Medic's whereabouts.

Each time the leads lead up to nothing but lose ends. And now without any effort on his part what so-ever, here she is. And by the looks of it she had seen to pull him back from the brink of death.

The irony never ceased to end it seemed.

Still tired from his injuries and too drained to care, he puts up no fight when the hand on his brow emits a tepid flow of chakra and he falls back into unconsciousness once more.

* * *

The next few days, which seemed endless and fleeting at the same time, were a blur to him. They were full of half conscious rambling and endless amounts of curses, not all of which came from him.

Suigetsu remembers being prodded into drinking what seems like gallons upon gallons of water, for the most part he complied, being thirstier then he could ever remember being.

Other times he would break into cold sweats, feeling as if he was being electrified, slowly slipping apart. The one thing that would quell the separating feeling was of course more water, but this water was different, sweeter, minty if possible.

The girl was there too.

She was always there, touching him, re-blanketing him, forcing food down his throat, talking to him

softly as if he wasn't half conscious and really could answer her back.

Somehow, no matter how illogical and pansy-ish that he told himself it was, he liked to listen to her voice. If he ever was well enough to think properly again, he would blame such stupid thoughts on the fever.

Vaguely, he remembers trying to escape once, having only made it half way across the room to his sword, before he was pulled back onto the futon and those accursed blankets by a bright pink swirl of strength.

Ego thoroughly bruised and male-pride wounded, he stayed put until he could properly link together coherent thoughts.

* * *

On his fifth day in her care, he is well enough to demand that she let him go.

Much to his annoyance, Sakura laughs at him and tells him that if it weren't for her he'd be dead, rotting next to her porch plants.

He complains that she doesn't know what she's talking about, that he would have been fine, he didn't need her in anyway. During his immature ranting, his sharp teeth caught his bottom lip in the middle of a string of curses, causing it to bleed. He ignores it, it happened a lot, in favor of continuing his temper tantrum despite the fact that he is almost nineteen years old and should be above such antics.

His fit is quelled when she is suddenly pushing him back into the futon with such force he can't struggle in the least. She gives him such a sad smile that makes his stomach flop uncomfortably.

"You really are more trouble then your worth." Indignantly he makes to tell her that she has no idea who she's talking to, that he's killed others for less then her stupid comment, but he is totally silenced when the pad of her thumb sweeps slowly over his bottom lip wiping away the crimson liquid.

He stares intently at her, morbidly transfixed by his blood staining her pale finger. "Please don't hurt yourself, okay?" the medic looks so lost when she says this, looking unsurely into this eyes and for a single moment he can see why Sasuke refused to let go of her memory.

When he doesn't answer, Sakura sighs and pulls her long candy-colored hair out of her face, Suigetsu can't help but watch dumbly as the blood from her finger bleeds (no pun intended) into the pink locks. "I'm going to get food, you better be here when I get back."

Her playful statement reminds him of just who he was and stupid how a petite girl and a little blood was making him act. He scoffs at her demand. "I'll do as I please little girl."

Still Suigetsu makes no attempt to leave, and it is only hours later, that he realizes that his lip is healed.

* * *

"He's still looking for you, ya know." He says on what he's been informed is his eighth day with the girl. He refuses to call her by her name, it is immature and childish he knows, but it is one of the few things she can't make him do right now, and it makes his sore ego better to have that much.

Sakura stares at him, not yet ready to answer. Thanks to her efforts, Suigetsu would be fine in another week or so. His chakra, for the most part, had stabilized and was slowly restoring itself, while his molecules were staying in their normal form. That was a strange little problem she had never had to deal with before, no one she ever knew had trouble literally keeping themselves together.

He leaned against her wall, half naked, his chest bare but his lower half still covered in blankets,.(The clothes she found him in were ruined beyond repair, so until she was able to ensure that he wouldn't bolt the minute she left he had to stay wrapped in the blankets.) He continued watching her with a strained look on his face. He was unusually serious, and it unsettled her.

She wished he'd stop bringing up the past and go back to smirking and calling her names. She could handle that, she wasn't quite sure how to handle this thoughtful Suigetsu.

Sakura broke eye contact and stared instead at her reflection in her tea. "I know he is." She answers evenly.

"Well?" He said impatiently.

"Well what?" she implores with a defeated tone that Suigetsu finds he doesn't like at all. For the first time he could see the toll the last few years had put her through. She was small, not just in the physical sense, but in an emotional one. Whenever he brought up anything remotely related to the past, she closed off, pulled back into herself and looked so tiny that it made him think he could break her with nothing but words.

He probably could.

It was a bad combination for a kunoichi, being emotional and fragile, but she was hardly a full fledged ninja anymore. In the back of his mind he decided to challenge her once he was back to full capacity, lord knows they both needed a good work out.

"Why don't you let him find you? Would have saved me a whole lot of trouble." He muttered at the end of the sentence, causing her to smile weakly into her tea.

"It's….complicated." Sakura sighed.

He rolled his eyes, women and their sensitivities, pfft. "How complicated could it be? I thought you loved the asshole." That earned him another small smile, bringing it up to four today, not that he was counting or anything.

"I did, but….it's hard to explain okay? I know I spent the better part of my genin and chunin days chasing after him, but after everything…" she trailed off, switching her gaze the only window in the room, where the rain fell in heavy sheets. He grunted to tell her to go on. "After everything, I guess I just don't want to deal with anything that'll remind me, or anyone. I barely even keep in contact with my best friend, it's just too painful you know?"

Silence settled between the two, Sakura lost in her own world of self pity and Suigetsu, thinking over what she said.

It made sense to him, in a odd way. When Mangetsu had gone and got himself killed, he'd wanted nothing to do with Kiri. So he ran away, and not even three months later, got captured by Orochimaru. What she had done wasn't so different, except for the whole snake sanin thing, he wouldn't wish that on anyone.

Even now, years after the fact he wouldn't go anywhere near Kiri if he could avoid it. It was a self protection thing, but if she didn't want anything to do with her past, then why bother with him? While they hadn't particularly known each other on a personal level, he had to be a constant reminder of what had befallen Konoha.

He spoke without thinking. "Why did you save me?"

The question surprised them both. For the first time in the conversation she looked at him dead on, glass green meeting gold. There was something weird in her gaze, confusion and unsureness were there, but so was a look of such tenderness, that it had him wondering what in the world saving him had meant to her.

"I don't know. It just felt, right I guess." They both turn to watch the rain, having enough emotional discovery for one day.

* * *

On the twelfth day Sakura realizes that she is in over her head. After being by herself for so long, after being friendless for two years, she finds that she enjoys Suigetsu's presence far too much, especially considering he was once her enemy.

'_Not anymore.' _Inner Sakura whispers _'He's hardly you enemy, he's practically a stray kitten.'_

She giggles at the mental image. It is the first time in weeks that anything has made her laugh.

"What's so damn funny?" he spits our sourly.

She smiles cryptically, before getting up speaking over her shoulder as she walks into what he guesses is the kitchen (he wouldn't know because the crazy bitch wouldn't let him see for himself.) "Nothing. Do want anything Suigetsu-Chan?" she teases lightly.

He decides that this is the last straw, he is a grown man damnit! He can get up a move around if he wants. He tells her as much. "I am not a kid, I don't need you to do everything for me! Now leave me the hell alone before I stop being such a fucking gentleman and slice off that pretty little head of you-"

The pinkette rolls her eyes, very much used to reluctant shinobi patients. She just needed to use a little bit of 'coercive reasoning' aka brute force and things would go over swimmingly.

"And another thing! I have just about had it with this whole cheery attitude thing it gets god damn anno-" He is cut off as she barrels into him, knocking him flat onto his back.

The first thing he thinks of is that he suddenly has a slight weight pressing down of his stomach pinning down his sides. Before he can respond with curses that would make a sailor blush, a straw is shoved into his mouth and he is forced to drink that minty water stuff again.

Sakura smirks as she watches him swallow the concoction, satisfaction swelling up inside her. Absently she makes herself comfortable, silently telling him that she won't get off him until he finished. His pretty gold eyes glare darkly at her as he finishes off the water-like substance.

"Woman are you completely suicidal?" His voice holds an edge to it that she hasn't heard before, but she knows by now that he is moodier then any woman, including herself and doesn't hold any stock to it.

"Suicidal, maybe, but it was effective."

His jaw tightens as he attempts to push the pinkette away from him, but this only results in her thighs clamping down of his sides with more pressure and her leaning over him even further. "Get off. Now." He can't bring himself to look at her, especially not while she's being all giggly, leaning over him far too much, pouting ever so slightly at his tone.

Feared nuke-nin or not, this was below the belt, literally.

"Really Suigetsu, you need to stop being such a baby. It's just a little human contact, it's healthy for you." she tilted her head to the side, which she often did when she was confused. His face was getting all red again, was the fever returning? "Are you feeling okay?"

Great now she was touching his face, his forehead, cheek, neck, Kami, this was cruel and unusual punishment. Sick, or not, if she didn't stop touching him, stop moving around so much, stop breathing his air, he wasn't sure how long he could remain a 'good' patient. It took every ounce of his self control not switch up the roles a bit and see how much she liked being under him, not being able to move, and feel his weight shift over her stomach ever so-

No, he was not even venturing there.

He fights down the blush enough to glare vehemently at her. "Woman, you are the stupidest person I have ever met, including Karin!" She made a face at that. "There's a minor detail missing from your 'little human contact.'!" He glanced at her, then himself and back to her again trying to say without words that she was dangerously close to being sexual with him.

Sakura rolled eyes. "Oh come on you're being a bit too sens-…..oh." Realization finally dawned on her, and her eyes widen.

He was right, there was something missing and she had an achingly certain hunch that it had something to do with the fact that the only thing separating her from his still very naked form, was a thin blanket that was only centimeters from away revealing a whole lot more of Suigetsu then she had ever hoped to see.

'_Oh, did I forget to tell you he's still naked? Yeah, we were supposed to pick up clothes for him today, seems to have slipped my mind.' _Inner Sakura added in mock concern. _'Oops, my bad.'_

He watched with a half relieved, half amused frame of mind as Sakura moves off him as quickly as humanly possible, muttering all kinds of apologies, before running out the house, shoes not even fully on.

'Well,' he thinks to himself. 'This has officially gotten awkward.' It became incredibly clear to him that the pink haired kunoichi had captured his attention like no other female before her ever had. Because their definitely wasn't another woman who had the guts to tackle him to the ground, and be anywhere near him when he was naked, he was sure of that.

The question now was, what was he going to do about this sudden interest. The answer was clear to him. He had always taken what he wanted, and if that now happened to include his new-found medic, then so be it.

Epiphany aside, Suigetsu exhales deeply, and lays flat on the floor until he feels her chakra signature completely leave the area before rising to finally get some much needed exercise. Not to mention some obligatory snooping around the house he'd spent the last twelve days confined to.

He is amused to no end when Sakura returns almost an two hours later, drenched, but carrying at least 3 three pairs of pants for him.

* * *

At the two week mark, Suigetsu has just about had it with her pussyfooting around him all the damn time.

The only good point was that now with both pants and only a few sore ribs left, he was able to walk around, get his own food, and when Sakura wasn't looking train a little. It was relieving to be on his own two feet again, to be able to what he wished to do.

It was refreshing to say the least.

Still his newly returned freedom, meant that the pink haired medic didn't have to monitor him twenty-four seven, and she now spent most of her time on the porch in front of the house, watching the rain.

A small part of him knew that this was fine, he'd be gone in a few days anyway, to where he didn't know, but it would be far away the Ame, that was for sure. But of course the larger part of him, was inwardly throwing a temper tantrum because the object of his interest wasn't paying enough attention to him.

He always was a spoiled brat at heart.

Not thinking about the consequences of his actions, like always, he waits until Sakura is about to retire for the night, when she gives him the minty water that he has gotten used to by now, to confront her.

"I'm bored."

Sakura gives him a nonplused look. "What would you like me to do about that?" He give her a grin, already anticipating her answer and crosses his arms slyly looking at her over his shoulder.

"Entertain me, of course." To make sure his message got through he eyes the poor girl up and down for good measure. This was by no means the first time he had said a comment of this nature to her. In fact ever since the 'blanket incident' (as he so fondly called it) He had taken every chance to remind her of the 'sexual tension' (again his words, not hers.) that had begun to fill the small house.

Half the time in ended horribly for him, with chakra laced punches and her refusing to talk to him for a few hours, knowing that he hated the silence more then almost anything.

But, the other half of the time, He earned himself a blushing pile of hypersensitive Sakura goo, who couldn't seem to figure out how she got herself into these kids of situation all the time when it came to him.

To his credit, Sakura's pale skin reddened at the slow languid path his eyes took. Point.

Suigetsu: 9

Sakura: 4

He cant help but chuckle at the conflicted look on her face, as if she was trying to figure out if he's serious or not. She looks at the glass he's holding, the door frame, any where but his suggestive gaze. "It's not my job to make sure your entertained." She manages to mutter out while side stepping him and walking into her room, the door slamming shut behind her. (not before feeling a very poignant stare directed at her backside)

That counted as two points in his book.

* * *

The next morning she doesn't wake him up like she usually does.

In fact, he wakes up three hours later than usual to the sight of her sitting at the window watching the rain again.

"What the hell woman? Why didn't you-" she interrupts him.

"You're better. You're free to go when ever you want."

Sakura doesn't even look at him when she says it.

There is a pang of something (regret, fear, concern?) in his chest. He was fine. Completely better with a clean bill of health. He can leave this dinky little shack and return to his life.

Except he didn't have one.

Moving all the time, taking crap missions that barely paid, there was no need to take out other nin anymore, there were no villages, no organized system, just every ninja looking out for number one, that was no life.

Wasn't that the what he always wanted though, to spend his days tracking nin and collecting rare swords?

Now, he wasn't all that sure.

* * *

"Hey, pinkie, why don't you and me spar?" It was day 16, they had been under the same roof, emerged in each other's realities for over half a month now. She had given him the green light to leave, even if it was in a moment of anger and resentment, but he had not left yet.

If Suigetsu left then she would be alone again and she wasn't ready to go back to life without constant nagging and complaining. Not yet at least. Maybe it was the look in her eyes when she apologized, literally at the edge of tears, that caused him to awkwardly pat her head and grumble a 'yeah okay whatever, fine.' (A few points for her.)

He accepted her apology, but apparently it didn't mean he had to be a good sport about it. In fact since the entire event, his teasing had been worse then usual, often time leaving her breathless and feeling like the air had risen in temperature.

And he wouldn't call her by her damn name the entire while either! Somehow Suigetsu knew how to push all of her buttons, in all the wrong ways.

'_If he calls us pinkie one more time….' _inner Sakura thought darkly. Even her inner self who had long since given into his teasing and spent most of her time given her outer self many a questionable mental images of their latest patient, had become fed up with his refusal to gratify her with her own name.

"Woman, did you hear me? I said we should spar, you know since I'm in 'top shape' in all."

Sakura fought the urge to crack her knuckles. He was like a child with the amount of attention he demanded. Looking away from the medical scroll she had 'borrowed' (and by borrowed she meant pilfered from a random ninja that strayed too close to her home.) she glared daggers at Suigetsu who was half naked stretching on her living room floor

'_I take that back , he's worse then a child. He's like Naruto.' _Inner Sakura interjected. _'Don't mind the half naked part though.'_

"No, Suigetsu, we are not sparring. And put some clothes on." Irritably she twirls an extra pencil through her hair using it to keep the pink locks in a haphazard bun.

Predictably enough, he rolls his eyes and ignores the latter part of her sentence. "Why not? Kami knows we need to relive some tension." She didn't have to look at him to know he was being perverted again, his tone said it all. "Of course there are other ways to go about that kind of thing…."

'_A thousand times worse then Naruto!' _her inner self screeched.

The pencil she was holding snapped in half. "Tension, what tension? There is no tension between us!" Suigetsu actually has the decently to look nervous as she jumps from her stool and glares vehemently at him. "And if you call me 'Woman', or 'girly' or 'pinkie' one more damn time I'm going cut off your head with your own god damn sword!"

Sakura glares again for posterities sake and plops down facing away from the Kiri-nin once more. 'Hell, that felt good.' She takes a deep breath begins to count down from twenty, exhaling deeply with each digit.

20...19...18...17

Somewhere around 15 Suigetsu comes to the conclusion that an angry Sakura, is a very very attractive Sakura.

14...13...12...11

At about 9 Suigetsu decides that he has always been a reckless kind of guy and silently walks across the stretch of wood paneling that separates them, until he is standing directly behind her deeply breathing form.

4...3...2...1-

"Then what would you prefer I can you, _Sa-ku-ra_?" His mouth is so close to her that his lips just barely touch the shell of her ear making the velvety way he says her name vibrate through her entire body.

Sakura struggles to contain the tingling sensation that travels down her spine every time he exhales. And all rational thought escapes Sakura when his hands find themselves resting at the base of her neck.

"W-what are you doing?" Her voice is rough and uneven.

Suigetsu silently adds another tally to his score (him; 17 her; 9) as it becomes clear that she is breathing faster, unable to respond when he touches her. Suigetsu feels her pulse erratically pounding through the pale skin of her neck. Absently he traces unknown patterns over the hyper-sensitive skin, and thinks that with just a little pressure to the jugular, he could easily end her existence.

Admittedly, this is the farthest thought from him mind at the moment.

"Well?" When she continues to say nothing he trails his mouth down the column of her throat, teeth lightly scraping, until he reaches the strangely endearing little niche where her shoulder and neck connected.

"No, stop, you can't-" Her plea is weak even to her own ears.

During the entire process alarm bells ring loud and clear inside Sakura's mind. She needed to stop this, stop him before it got out of hand, before she listened to her inner self went along with whatever he wanted.

Humming lightly, making her jump, (another point for him), Suigetsu taunts her further, enjoying the shifting of roles. "What was that pinkie?" He feels her tense up, coming to herself at the 'nickname.'

Her mouth opened to righteously tell him to get the hell off her and kindly get the hell out of her house, she really was going to say it, but his words beat her to it.

"Cat got your tongue _Sa-ku-ra_?"

Her breath hitched audibly, and the long suppressed squeak pushed it's way past her lips.

He licked her.

'Who does that!' she wanted to yell at the top of her lungs, but the only intelligent thought that she is able to vocalize, is softly purred "Nyah…."

'I've got you now little miss goodie two shoes. Let that be a lesson to you; no good deed goes unpunished.' Suigetsu lazily dragged the pink appendage under her ear, and Sakura, despite all of her righteous indignation, knows she never really stood a chance.

Suddenly it mattered even less then before that once upon a time he was her enemy, that he was once Sasuke's lackey, that they came from villages that hated each other, that only two years ago they would have done everything to kill one another

It didn't matter.

She had been so empty for so long, not knowing what she was living for in a world of death and destruction. She felt nothing, and she was sick of it. And out of no where a catalyst was thrown into her life, in the form of a non too gentle, abrasive, bratty, Suigetsu. And for the first time in who knows how long, Sakura was forced to budge, respond and adapt.

If she gave in, if she allowed whatever was pushing them together to run its course, then things would never be the same, she could never think of him as her enemy again, her giving heart just wouldn't allow it.

Nothing would ever be the same and that was fine because she never wanted to be that empty again.

Suigetsu is bit taken back when her body shifts, turning to face him completely, small hands pull his face up to meet her own , and there is the softest pressure of her lips against his.

"You are the worst patient ever."

Smirking he breaks the gentleness of the kiss, he tugs her too him, she is barely one the stool anymore and has to clutch at his shoulders to keep from falling, it is a dirty trick that brings her flush against him, but he has never been above playing dirty.

"You have no idea."

Their next kiss was nothing like their first, and both liked it that way.

* * *

It was late into the night, and she lay on her side, the room illuminated by the open window. Rain fell in thick sheets and distantly thunder boomed and lightning lit up the night.

Absently, she pulled the sheet closer to her bare form. There was resistance in the way of Suigetsu's arm around her waist pinning her to her spot. Moving was impossible, his hold over her waist was like iron and they were so tangled up that she could barely budge without alerting him.

Once upon a time the idea of being within miles of this man made her blood boil, now she was naked next to him on the floor of her bedroom. (They had never quite made it to bed, but she nor he had exactly complained.)

Sakura found it didn't bother her as much as common sense said it should.

She knew that it _should _concern her, Suigetsu wasn't the ideal partner by any means, he was selfish, irrational, and could careless about the ramifications of his actions. She was sure he'd probably leave the first chance he got, to go fight some amazingly strong nin. It was his nature after all.

Really these were things she should have taken in consideration not only before becoming 'involved' with him (No matter what they had actually done, and they had done a lot, she blushed deeply whenever she said the word 'sex' Even when Suigetsu laughed at this and told her she was being such a little kid about it) but before she had even dragged his bleeding form off her porch.

He was the worst kind of person to become enamored with, but she ignored all these signs, because she wanted something, someone, to fill the void inside of her, even if he'd end up hurting her in the long run. She was willing to deal with that when, or if, the time came.

Even if it meant being stuck with a selfish, bratty, bastard of a man with one dimple in his left cheek and off-puttingly sharp teeth. (That's she had recently learn could be used in very creative ways…..)

Sakura couldn't regret it. Suigetsu was like a breath of fresh air, something so abstract and different from herself, that she wanted nothing more to get lost in. In that sense he was like rainwater that couldn't be held in her hands, but felt wonderful to be emerged in, completely a peace with the universe if only from a single moment in time.

It was worth it to be held and be filled with affection for another. It may not be paradise, but it was still more then Sakura had ever dared to hoped for.

* * *

_I was waiting. _

_Waiting for the rain to fall, waiting for the sky to open up and wash away all the pain I had festering in my heart, to be whole again. I waited for so long hoping the worst was over; stuck in limbo. All I ever did was wait. But when the rain never came to me I realized that I didn't need to wait any longer. _

_I just needed to inhale, exhale and walk into the mist all on my own._

_

* * *

_

**Ending notes**; Thank god it's over! This thing was only supposed to be about 1500 words long and it suddenly turned into a super!oneshot ™. Ugh, well I'm pretty pleased with this story, especially because I'm one of very very few that can say that they've written for SuiSaku.

If you like please leave a review, to let me know how I did. If you didn't like, still leave me a review so I can make them more in-character next time around!

_Forever and Eternally,_

_-Ra_


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